DURING its early years, State of Origin football brought Queensland to the fore as a major competitor to the traditional New South Wales stranglehold over rugby league. This eventually led to two new Queensland sides joining the NSWRL competition in 1988. Of those teams, it was the Broncos that proved the dominant force north of the border and while they were enjoying consecutive premierships in 1992 and 1993, their Gold Coast counterparts were being smacked with wooden spoons.

JASON Cayless is not worrying about winning back a Kiwis' test jumper although Sunday's National Rugby League (NRL) grand final replay with the New Zealand Warriors is the ideal platform to stake a claim.

THE National Rugby League's referee interchange experiment barely raised an eyebrow or a mutter at Campbelltown when it was video ref Mick Lewis who made the biggest call of the game between Wests Tigers and North Queensland.

TONIGHT the Cronulla Sharks have out-gunned the South Sydney Rabbitohs by 54 ? 34 in a free-flowing affair that has seen both teams rack up plenty of points. The Sharks eventually overcame a determined South?s outfit which fought hard but in the end couldn?t match the fire-power of a Cronulla team with nothing to lose.

CONTINUING his families tradition with the game of rugby league , outstanding young stand-off Jerome Ropati has been called up by the New Zealand Warriors to cover for injured Stacey Jones and Lance Hohaia in tomorrows game against the Roosters.